The controversial statements by the president of the climate summit on the future of fossil fuels Not only They have unleashed a real storm in Dubai but have also brought to the surface the true debate of this summit. Is the world ready to immediately divest from oil, gas and coal to avoid climate catastrophe? The most exhaustive scientific studies carried out to date suggest that this is the only roadmap which will allow us to avoid extreme warming of the planet. The Dubai summit initially proposed reaching a “clear and ambitious” agreement to achieve this goal. But now, in their fifth day of negotiations, it seems that The summit has become bogged down in this debate again.
These are the keys to understand why has it resurfaced With so much force the debate on fossil energy and, above all, how this controversy could impact the final agreement at the Dubai climate summit (COP28).
The controversy of the president of the summit
As revealed this weekend by the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’, in an ‘online’ talk organized on November 21, Sultan Al Jaber (who in addition to chairing this year’s climate summit also heads the UAE’s state oil company) publicly stated that “there is no scientific evidence” that demonstrates that the elimination of fossil fuels is what will limit global warming to 1.5 degrees on average. And if we do it in an uncontrolled way, the world ran the risk of “returning to the caves”.
This Monday, after the dust raised by these statements, Al Jaber appeared before the press to clarify that his words were “misinterpreted” and that he, indeed, has always “defended science” and sees as “inevitable the progressive elimination of fossil fuels.” The president of the summit has also stated that this same position, which he also defended during the controversial talk that you reported this weekend, will be what marks this year’s negotiations. “Science is what that has guided the debates at this summit until now,” he clarified to settle the controversy.
Summit negotiations
For years science has pointed strongly to the need to abandon fossil fuels but, so far, this message has not yet been clearly translated into any international agreement. In the Paris Agreement, for example, countries committed to reducing emissions but not to leave fossil energies behind. In Glasgow, for the first time in history, the final agreement managed to put in writing the need to “progressively reduce” (although not “eliminate”) these sources. The Dubai summit, at first, was willing to reopen this debate. Although, for the moment, it is not clear if any progress will be made about.
These days there are many voices that have defended the end of fossil fuels. “We can not save a burning planet with a fossil fuel hose“said António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations. Several spokespersons for the European Commission, as well as the Third Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition of the Spanish Government, Teresa Ribera, have taken a similar position. “Without eliminating fossil fuels there is no climate security“said Ribera from Dubai after remembering that, once again, the European bloc is pressing to include this commitment in the final summit agreement.